One of the common criticisms levelled at Cambridge United over the past few seasons was that they were able to beat the so-called “smaller” teams in the division – but would struggle against the leaders.

So for interim head coach Joe Dunne to guide his side to a 1-0 win over fifth-place Notts County, the U’s third victory on the bounce, was an important marker ahead of a run of four fixtures against teams towards the top-end of the league.

And Dunne said his side need to show the same “spirit, courage and tenacity” as they did on Tuesday against Accrington Stanley this weekend.

“We’re obviously pleased with the result and the performance which was key,” he said.

“Sometimes the teams at the top we’ve not necessarily come out with a positive result.

“However, that it why those teams are at the top of the league and, you know, quality sometimes counts.

“We matched it the other night and found a way to beat a very good team.

“That kind of spirit, courage, and tenacity we’re going to need going into these next group of games on Saturday.”

Should the U’s get three points away in the north-west this weekend, it’ll be the first time since their return to the Football League that they’ve managed four consecutive wins.

But Dunne said that they haven’t got any specific targets in mind going into the next run of fixtures, rather they want to continue to make “small gains”.

“[There’s] no targets, just try win the games that’s next and that’s the way we’ve done it,” he said.

“Every day when we come into training we try and do something.

“We say win every day, make small gains, no plans for four, five games runs it’s just one game.

“Just play it as a tennis point as it can change so quickly and that’s what we’ve done and that’s what we’ll continue to do and what we’ll do all that time I’m sat here.

“We, as a staff will maintain what we’ve done and that’s prepare for every moment of the day we’re in as we can’t control the future.

“We can try and effect it but Saturday is Saturday and that’s it.

“That’s the way I’m work and I’m not going to say ‘oh we can win the next few games or we can do this or we can do that’ because football only allows you to control so much and what we can control we’ll do that.”

He added: “At the moment, the players are doing well and we have to keep that going. We’ve got a lot of tough games coming up between now and the end of the season and we want to just keep going.”